I mentioned in my last post that I plan to visit the ongoing Kandinsky Exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales so I thought I’d share this little video introducing the artist and the exhibition:
Archive for Sydney
Kandinsky: an introduction
Posted in Art with tags Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Wassily Kandinsky on February 15, 2024 by telescoperSydney, Ten Days in
Posted in Biographical with tags Australia, Sydney, Weather on February 14, 2024 by telescoperTaking a few moments over breakfast to post about life in Sydney. This morning is cooler than it has been for a while and it’s all a bit rainy. It was very warm (by my standards) earlier in the week (up to 31°C) and very humid, culminating in thunderstorms but those were some way off in the distance so didn’t affect us greatly. Since then it’s been in the mid-20s with a mixture of clouds, light rain, and sunshine. You have to be careful here, though, as it is perfectly possible to get sunburn when it’s cloudy. I’m definitely glad I brought my hat.
Other than the weather, the main thing at the University is that it’s Orientation Week, when the new students arrive. Campus has been much busier this week than it was last week, as you can see from the pictures above; I wanted to stand in the same spot for the second picture but there were too many people. Lectures start next week, for both new and returning students, so it should get even busier.
I’ve managed to book tickets for two different performances at the Opera, The Magic Flute and La Traviata. These weren’t cheap but I couldn’t resist seeing the Sydney Opera House from the inside. I’m also planning a trip to the Art Gallery of New South Wales, were there is a special exhibition of art by Wassily Kandinsky which I must see. I’m also going to travel around a bit to give a few talks in the Sydney area.
My diary is filling up, so the second half of this visit will be rather busier than the first, but it should all be interesting!
Walkabout in Sydney
Posted in Biographical with tags Australia, Food, photography, Sydney, Sydney Harbour Bridge, Sydney Opera House on February 10, 2024 by telescoper
It was a bit rainy this morning so my planned Saturday walk around Sydney was a bit truncated. I made it to Sydney Harbour but didn’t go on a boat trip, which I’ll do later. I didn’t have time to visit the Botanical Gardens or the Art Gallery of New South Wales, which are nearby, but will do so later. I was planning to take more pictures with my little compact camera too, but when I took it out I realized its battery was virtually flat and I had to use my phone camera instead. The light here is very different from Ireland! Fortunately I’m here long enough that I’ll have other opportunities for exploration.
My residence in Sydney is the district called Ultimo, which is very central and close to the University of Sydney campus. There is excellent public transport from here to Circular Quay, close to both the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, but I needed to stretch my legs so took a leisurely stroll of about an hour, my route taking me through Haymarket and Chinatown to Circular Quay. It being Chinese New Year, I took a detour to look at some of the preparations for two weeks of celebrations. I enjoyed the walk, which followed the tram line most of the way there, and it was getting rather warm in late afternoon so I returned by tram.
Anyway, after much fiddling about, I’ve managed to embed a video I put on Instagram. As you can hear, it was quite windy!
P.S. Here’s an interesting factoid for you: the population of Greater Sydney (5.3M) exceeds that of the entire Republic of Ireland (5.0M).
University of Sydney, Physics, and Astronomy…
Posted in Biographical, History with tags Australia, Grubb Telescope Company, Howard Grubb, Sydney, University of Sydney on February 7, 2024 by telescoperHere’s a gallery of random pictures I took on the way to the Physics Department at the University of Sydney this morning.
The academic year at the University of Sydney is about to start, with the new intake of students beginning to arrive next week and the first lectures taking place the week after that. The rows of tents are for the various student societies which will be hoping to recruit new members. The University was founded in 1850 and the architectural style of the older buildings on campus is what you might call Victorian Gothic Revival. There are also buildings dating from the 1920s, such as the Faculty of Medicine (1922) and the Physics Building (1924); the latter seems much bigger on the inside than the outside, and also has a new building next to it devoted to nanoscience.
I’ve posted before about the famous optical instrument manufacturer, the Grubb Telescope Company, founded in Dublin by Thomas Grubb and later renamed Grubb Parsons after its relocation to Newcastle upon Tyne. I’ve posted about other connections too, including the presence in the Physics Department in Barcelona of a refracting telescope made by Grubb. Imagine my surprise, then, when I saw yet another Grubb Telescope near the entrance to the Physics building of the University of Sydney, this one made in 1893. This is further evidence – as if it were needed – that, in its time, the Grubb Telescope Company really was the world leader in optical instrumentation.
P.S. The later manifestation of the Grubb Telescope Company – Grubb Parsons – also has Australian connections, including making the primary mirror for the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) and building the UK Schmidt situated next to the AAT at Siding Spring Observatory (about 500 km from Sydney).
Arrived Down Under
Posted in Biographical with tags Sydney on February 5, 2024 by telescoper
The plane from Abu Dhabi to Sydney set off a bit late but, 13 hours later, arrived slightly ahead of schedule in Sydney at about 7pm local time. I hadn’t quite realized how much of the flight is actually across Australia itself. It’s quite a big place. Who knew? The route took us over Sri Lanka, incidentally.
Australian immigration and customs were a bit of a rigmarole but didn’t really take all that long and once through I took a taxi to the hotel where I’ll be stating for the next month or so. I have a self-catering suite, which is very nice so I’m looking forward to my stay here.
It’s warm in Sydney – about 26° when I landed – but a bit overcast and very muggy. Rain is forecast.
Today is a public holiday in Ireland, the first Monday on or after 1st February. Astronomically speaking this cross-quarter day is about half-way between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. Here of course it’s between the Summer Solstice and the Autumn Equinox, which takes place at the beginning of August in the Northern Hemisphere and is in Ireland sometimes referred to as the start of Autumn. The climate here in Sydney is very different from Ireland, however, and I don’t think anyone thinks of 1st August as Autumn.
Anyway, the flight went really well. I even slept for a few hours so I’m not particularly tired, but I’m still 11 hours out of kilter so I’ll try to stay up as long as possible and get a good night’s sleep to try to reset my internal clock. I plan to go for a walk tomorrow morning to explore my immediate surroundings then head up to the University campus to say hello to Physics Department.
A Bridge Too Far
Posted in Education with tags Newcastle upon Tyne, Sydney, Sydney Harbour Bridge, Tyne Bridge on June 11, 2011 by telescoperMy commitment to the education of the great unwashed knows no bounds. Tonight’s subjects are architecture and geography.
Not a lot of people know that the relatively unknown Sydney Harbour Bridge is in fact a cheap replica of a much more famous structure in a much more interesting location:
Sydney Harbour Bridge
Tyne Bridge
Ashes Victory
Posted in Cricket, Poetry with tags Ashes, Australia, cricket, England, John Groves, Sydney on January 7, 2011 by telescoper
Well, there you have it. England’s cricketers finally won the final Test of the Ashes series in Sydney by an innings and 83 runs, to win the series outright. It has been a wonderful performance by the England team down under which has warmed the cold English (and Welsh) winter.
Commiserations to Australian cricket fans. Their team just wasn’t as good as England, with bat or ball. They have a lot of rebuilding to do, but you can be sure they’ll be back challenging for the Ashes again before long.
I thought I’d put up a poem to celebrate. This one is called The Game and was written by John Groves. It represents an idyllic view of what many English crickets fans surely regard as the match of any season – the Lord’s Test – which we can now look forward to with relish in the summer. However, I chose this poem for this occasion primarily because of the final couplet which takes us far beyond the boundaries of St John’s Wood.
A painter’s sky over Lord’s.
A gentle zephyr, blowing without brace,
The crowd engaged in all that joy affords
And England batting with admired grace.
The sun ablaze, an unforgiving pitch,
A bowler with a patriotic itch,
A ticking scoreboard and a close-run thing,
A resolute gull, high on a drowsy wing.
Though one team triumph, victory’s all the same:
The winner is the beauty of the game.
In the Dark 